Waiting
by BehrBeMine
Summary: Max, Liz, and the end of the world.


Title: Waiting  
Author: BehrBeMine (behrbemine@hotmail.com)  
Feedback: Always appreciated.  
Distribution: My site, 'Solemn One' (http://solemnone.tripod.com/). To archive anywhere else, just ask.  
Summary: Max, Liz, and the end of the world.  
Rating: PG  
Pairing: Max/Liz  
Muse: #3 -- Each fic must contain this line of dialogue and it must be spoken by a female character:  "Oh, I can't believe it's so big!"  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Don't sue, I'll cry. ;p  
Spoilers: 'Departure'. I am disregarding season three.  
Warning: Character death  
  
  
"When I'm with you, I feel like I could die and that would be all right." -- Third Eye Blind  
  
Roswell, New Mexico; 2014 A.D.  
  
She lies spooned in his arms, like a frightened child. He comforts her with slow kisses on the back of her neck. And gently he clasps one of her hands in his, pressing her body into his to calm the trembling. She's afraid because it's all going to end tomorrow.  
  
He has fears, too, but he won't acknowledge them, knowing that they'll take him under and keep him from doing what he needs to do. He can't look into his enemy's eyes with any trace of fear - - he has to be strong in will and body, strong enough to put up a fight, even if it is a losing battle.  
  
It will not only be the end of their existence, but everyone else's as well. Years ago, Liz whispered to him the story of how his future self had come to her, pleading for her to do something to save what he had let be destroyed. But as Tess left that summer morning in the granolith, all hope of a world saved was lost as the missing puzzle piece shot off into the stars. Without the fourth link to the alien circle, there was no way to save them. Any of them.  
  
All that was evil was closing in on the small town of Roswell, ready to arrive tomorrow and knock everyone down. Into the ground and into death.  
  
He thinks of those he's already lost. Isabel, her mind destroyed as she tried to dreamwalk those planning against her. She died weeks ago and now lies cold in the ground, her grave next to the sad remains of her dear Alex. He thinks of Michael, whose impulsiveness was his destruction in the end. Off he'd gone in search of the enemies that he couldn't wait to defeat. But alone, he hadn't been strong enough to fight them off for even a day, and he died. Max had felt it, felt his best friend's heart stop beating from so many miles away.  
  
He thinks of his parents, his loving, trusting parents who became his world when he was a six year-old child without a family of his own. He knows they will die, just as everyone will die, and he knows there is nothing he can do to save them.  
  
The girl in his arms breaks the silence that has surrounded them for as long as they could stretch it. There is evidence of oncoming tears in her voice as she suddenly exclaims, "Oh, I can't believe it's so big!"  
  
Max pauses as slowly he swallows. "It?"  
  
But he doesn't really need to ask. He knows what she meant - - she meant everything - - his world, hers; their world together that they will lose together.  
  
Liz lets out a shaky sigh. "This... I just can't believe this problem is really here, and is really this big. That it's going to be the death of us..."  
  
"Yeah." Though Max searches for something better, something more soothing to say, he comes up with nothing. He can't console her fears when he shares them, can't convince her that anything is going to be okay because nothing is.  
  
All he can do is hold her, and love her, gathering strength he knows he'll need for the day ahead. Maybe it is futile to fight, but fight he will, to his death.  
  
He smoothes Liz's hair back from her forehead, inhaling the sweet scent of her flowery shampoo. Her hair is shorter now than it used to be, cut up almost to her chin. He remembers the day she got that haircut. Remembers his disappointment to learn that he would no longer see it fan out so becomingly behind her when she spun around as she danced in his arms.  
  
He remembers a lot of little things like that. Things that he's SO grateful to hold as memories in his heart. Sometimes he thinks of what his future self said to Liz; he's always been upset that in another reality, he encountered enough terror to make him willing to give her up. If he believed in God, he would thank Him everyday for allowing him to keep Liz in his life, and in his heart.  
  
Max realizes what being with Liz has ultimately cost everyone, and yet there isn't a moment he's experienced with her that he would give up. Not a moment. He has known such a bright-burning love, a love that made others jealous at just a glance toward he and Liz. If the end of things is the price he has to pay for loving her instead of his alien destiny, then he's ready to be a man and accept that as the price that he will pay for the happiness he's been given.  
  
"I love you," Max whispers softly in Liz's ear, and she nods silently, those words as familiar to her as her heartbeat. "Hold onto that."  
  
The courage that he'll need tomorrow pools in the pit of his stomach, waiting to spring into action. While he still can, he lays still, holding close the one who has always meant the most to him. Together they lay, one heart shared between them. Trembling, breathing, waiting for the end.  
  
- -  
end 


End file.
